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How to Love the Way you Look on Live Video

By Ian Anderson Gray

Confident Live Marketing Podcast

Episode 36

Episode Theme: Confidence & Mindset

January 24, 2020

EP 36 - Blog Image

I had the pleasure of meeting Christine Tremoulet in 2019 at Social Media Marketing World. We were actually on a whale watching trip together organised by the team at SmarterQueue.

Christine is a photographer, story strategist & confidence catalyst and is based in Texas.

One of the reasons I hear from some people that stop them from going live - is that they just don't like the way they look. A lot of people don't like the way they sound either. But that doesn't have to be the case. Christine and I had an amazing conversation about confidence and learning not to just to be ok with the way you look on camera - but love it. Does that seem far fetched to you? It doesn't have to be!

We Cover...

  • How did you end up doing what you’re doing?
  • Have you done much in the way of live video before?
  • You spend a lot of time behind the camera. Do you get nervous before getting in front of the camera? Any tips?
  • Have you experienced any video or camera disasters? What did you learn from them?
  • One of the big issues people have is not liking the way they look or sound on video. How big an issue do you think this is?
  • Is there anything we can do about it?
  • What are your top tips in learning how to like the way we look on camera?
Christine Tremoulet

Who is Christine Tremoulet?

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston-based photographer who launched her professional career in 2007. Her work has spanned weddings, boudoir, and brand photography. She is also a speaker & educator, focusing on marketing & selling online so that you can build a business that you love that supports the life you want to live. She is the founder of the InstaLocal course, and the host of the Reframe Success for Pro Photographers podcast.

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The Confident Live Marketing Show

The Confident Live Marketing Show is a weekly live video show and podcast. It’s aimed at established entrepreneurs who want to level up their impact, authority and profits through the power of live video, webinars and podcasts. We’ll focus on knocking down the 3 main barriers these entrepreneurs face when creating live content - camera confidence/mindset, tech/gear and content marketing.

It’s hosted by Ian Anderson Gray. He is the founder of the Confident Live Marketing Academy and is the host of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. He’s founder of Seriously Social - a blog focused on live video and social media tools. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK.

Show Transcript

Ian: Hello. It's the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. This is episode 36 and today we're going to be talking about how to love the way you look on live video. But first is time to mention my first sponsor, which is  StreamYard.  StreamYard is my top recommended live video streaming web app tool. And that's because it works so easily and has so many powerful features.

It works in your web browser. And of course, because of that, it works really well for you, whether you are a Mac user or a PC user. So incredibly simple to use. There's amazing features such as being able to highlight comments on the screen, add your own titles, have up to five guests on your show without any extra software.

Being able to share your screen, add your own brand colors, streaming to Facebook, Periscope, LinkedIn Live, and YouTube. And now, just this week, they've added green screens. So you can actually add, if you have a green screen, you can actually get your background out and have a really cool background.  And all of that is on the free version. So if you go to iag.me/streamyard you can use a StreamYard completely free. But if you go for the paid version and there is a discount, if you go to iag.me/streamyard, that gives you even more, such as being able to add your logo, add overlays, backgrounds, videos, and multicasting to up to five destinations.

So this will allow you to broadcast to Facebook and YouTube at the same time, or LinkedIn live. If you have been blessed with LinkedIn live access. So anyway, there we go. That is StreamYard. I'll see if you want to find out more and if you want to have a play with it, go to iag.me/streamyard.

So really excited today to have Christine Tremoulet on. I met up with her early at last year and she's a Houston based. Photographer who launched her professional career in 2007 her work has spanned weddings, boudoir, and brand photography. She is also a speaker and educator focusing on marketing and selling online so that you can build a business that you love and that supports the life you want to live.

She is the founder of the Insta Local Course and the host of the reframe success for pro photographers podcast.  Christine, it's great to have you on the show.

Christine: It's great to be here!

Ian: It's great to have you on. I'm really excited about this because we met last year. Do you remember how we met?

On a boat!

Yes. We were doing whale watching, weren't we?

Yeah.

Christine: whale watching and San Diego, California.

Ian: Yeah, this was a, of course, social media marketing world, and I'm excited to find that you're going against social media marketing world 2020 so we'll have to have to meet up. I'm not sure whether we're doing whale watching or whatever. So, yeah, it's great to have you on. I've just noticed on LinkedIn that we're going live on LinkedIn as well.

Joe North is here and she's saying. Agreed. It's good to plan. So we were talking about planning before we started . I plan in 90 day cycles and she says where

Christine: I love 90 day cycles. I think they're so good.

Ian: 90 day cycles. I need to think about that. So I've been using a Janet Murray, I don't know if you've heard of Janet Murray, but , Joe, and I know Jody, and she's got this whole planner, which is really good.

And it does talk about planning quarterly, then diving into monthly and then weekly, which is great. she also says wearing bright colors and getting prepped with content helps with confidence a lot. So I'll be interested to know what you think about that. we'll have to talk about that.

So yeah, we talked about where we first met, which was at social media marketing world, but I, I, I had this dislocate to talk about this, but does that, you've got a bit of a claim to fame in a bit of a geeky way. And because I'm a geek, and I think I mentioned this to you before, my son was so impressed about this.

Do you want  to explain the story? You know what I'm talking about, don't you?

Christine: I know exactly what you're talking about. My geek claimed to fame. Is the fact that I named WordPress the actual software, WordPress. I'm friends with Matt Mullenweg who is one of the founders. He is the U S founder because the other founders in the UK isn't he?,

Ian: He is that he just Mike Little and he lives

. He lives just down the road from me, so actually I wouldn't say I know him really well, but , he organizes the meetups in Manchester. He's a really lovely guy. So yeah, it's that amazing?

Christine: Matt told me that they, everybody always is like, what's the story? So the shortest version possible is that Matt told me they were ready to launch, but they didn't have a name yet. I had told him months earlier that I'm good at naming things, and he said, Hey, we don't have a name.

We were also at a conference for, at South by Southwest interactive, and I called him a few days later after checking the domain and I said, WordPress, that's it's WordPress. That's what you have to name it. So I didn't give him other Emory that it's always like, what were the other ideas you had?

And I'm like, there were none. I was that confident in the name. I was like, WordPress, there you go. And so,

Ian: It is amazing, isn't it? And of course, I mean, I suppose in those days you didn't never would have expected that this thing that you named would power over a fifth of the world's websites. Yeah.

Christine: Oh, it's more than that now. It's over 30% and Matt, Matt's 14 years younger than me. So at the time, I don't even think, I think Matt was still 20. At the time that we had that conversation, and he told me that he just thought the software is going to change the world, and I was already in my thirties so I was like, Aw, that's precious.

Sure, sure it will. And he was right and I was wrong.

Ian: Wow. That's such a great story. Well, I think it's time to, to find out a little bit more about you. And so you know, you don't really know what this is about except for the fact that this is time for the quiz, the Confident Live quiz. I'm going to ask you a few little questions. How are you liking the music in the background?

So all this is. No right or wrong answer. It's just a way for us to get to know you a little bit. So are you ready? Are you

Christine: I'm ready.

Ian: Right! Well, here we go.

So the first question is, what is your favorite type of food?

Christine: Well, I just can go for the default of pizza. I love pizza.

Ian: Pizza. Yeah. You can't go wrong with that. We had homemade pizza at the weekend. It's great stuff.

Okay, so the next question, is... Mac or PC?

Christine: Both.

Ian: Ooh. In fact, let me just play this noise.

Excellent. So do you want to go into more detail about why you have both?

Christine: I started as a PC user. Then I became a Mac user. When I became a professional photographer. Everybody was like, Oh, you're a photographer. You have to use Mac. And I will say back in 2008, the way the operating system worked, it did make a difference. And more recently, I'm currently actually on a Windows Surface right now.

so I use a PC for my computing power and for going live, and I pick the surface because it has one of the best builtin cameras.

Ian: Awesome. I didn't know that. And I know, I did notice in the photo that we showed at the beginning that you have a surface. In that photo. So

that's, that's cool. Yeah. And it's interesting cause I think PCs, they are more powerful for, for live video and things like that. But I, I had a similar story to you. I was a PC user for many years and then I got more into live video and more into social media.

And so everyone said, Oh, you need to try Mac. So I did. But I use, I tend to use both. My main computers is a Mac, but I do use PCs as well, so that's

Christine: I love my, I love my iPad pro at the same time, so,

Ian: that's good. Let's, it's, it's nice  a lot of people are definitely Mac. Definitely PC, but nice to meet somebody who's a bit of both.

Okay. Next question is your favorite kind of music?

Christine: I am an eighties pop. And definitely a strong British pop influence.

Ian: Like, like what can you name any bands you'd like.

Christine: I just, all of

Ian: just all of them. Okay.

Christine: much all of them. Yes.

Ian: Well that's good. That gives me a little bit of, bit of a thought for the, the theme music of this podcast. Then if you know, we, we have a different theme music for each podcast.

Okay. So the next question is, okay, if you had to choose between a banana and a Krispy Kreme donut, what would it be?

Christine: Neither one.

Ian: So explain that.

Christine: well, I hate bananas.

Ian: Okay.

Christine: So the banana was out. I was

going to choose whatever you said. but I'm allergic to flour.

I can't eat wheat, so I can't eat the crispy cream. I would pick the crispy cream otherwise, but I can't.

Ian: Would they have like a wheat free one. I

Christine: They do not have a gluten

free crispy. No.

Ian: There we go. Yeah. Well I wouldn't choose that cause I'm off sugar. I don't have sugar, but I'm not

Christine: yeah. I'm also, I eat very low carb, so can I choose a steak instead?

Ian: yes.

So we're onto the next, the next question. So next question is your favorite kid's TV program.

Christine: Well, I grew up on Sesame street, Sesame street, and Mr. Rogers.

Ian: That's a good choice. You know, I don't think I've ever seen Mr. Rogers. I think I wish, I know this is awful, but I don't know whether we had that in the UK. Maybe we did.

Christine: Surely it's on YouTube or

Ian: I'm going to have to check.

Okay next question is, okay, this is interesting. Your favorite classical composer?

Christine: Beethoven

Ian: Ooh!

You have to think about that. Does that.

Christine: I was like, or maybe Mozart, but yeah. Well, both

Ian: Okay. Okay. That's, that's cool.

Final question. I think you'll like this question because you all a self-confessed geek. What is your favorite app?

Christine: Currently, my favorite app is the Goodnotes app on my iPad because I love to hand write things and I can hand write all my notes.

Ian: That's really good. I've heard loads of good things about the good notes app. Our iPad is very, very old. It's the iPad third generation. It's, I'm surprised it's still working, but I need to check them out once, once I do upgrade. which is great.

okay. Well, , I wanted to ask you how you got into what you're doing. So, you know, obviously you've been doing photography since, was it 2007, how did you get into all of this and what you will also, what you're doing with, with businesses when the Instagram and all that kind of stuff.

Christine: You know, it's sort of funny that we brought up the WordPress thing because it ties into all of it.  In the early 2000s I was working as a digital strategist with fortune 500 companies. I worked for a web design agency at the time, I started blogging in 2000. I've been obviously a long time geeks.

So that's how the whole naming of WordPress attending  South by Southwest and everything happened , plus I'm in Houston, South by Southwest is just down the road for me. So no brainer to go, no travel involved really. Over time, a lot of dotcom shakeups I went through two different rounds of layoffs at two different agencies and I just sort of decided I was, I was done.

I really wanted to be a professional photographer. And, while I was in the middle of job hunting and just stressed out and frustrated, I told my husband, I just want to go take pretty pictures. And he said, Oh, okay. So then go do it. What's stopping you? The, I had already taken photos for 20 years at that point in time.

It was not new to photography, but I was new to running it as a business.  However, because I was already so involved in the tech world using the power of social media and connecting with people locally made my photo business take off, and there are so many lessons that I learned. In those years before I launched my photo business that still come into play today, such as using the power of live video to connect with people.

we have so many resources available to us now that we can take advantage of to grow our businesses in a way that you never could have done in 2000.

Ian: Yes, it's a good time to live. I mean, I remember two thousands you know, the, the internet, the worldwide web at least was still relatively new. And now just all the stuff that we've got. The technology and live video is one of those technologies. So, you know, have you done much, I know you've got a podcast.

If you've done much in the way  of video and live video, do you use that much in your business?

Christine: I've done live video.  I meet with clients using live videos, so zoom and things like that. I've used it for  running group coaching programs. I've used it to meet with photography clients so that. just, you know, like a one-on-one Skype or zoom type of meeting in that case as well. And I've done Facebook lives,

it's so powerful because . People want to connect with other people, they really want to know you, and it's adds that additional layer. I used to say in 2000 when I would talk to a fairly small company, I used to tell them the beauty of the internet is that you can be a company of 10 but you can look like a company of 10,000

Ian: yes.

Christine: but with Twitter and blogging and the way everything has changed over the past 20 years. I now tell people the opposite. The beauty of the internet is it doesn't matter how large of a company you are, you can still build a personal relationship with your customer base and your customer base expects it. , if I am flying somewhere, this specifically happened to me.

I was flying at how United flight, I had an issue on the, with the seat that I had reserved.

I moved up to the front of the plane. So I would have a good view of the mountains. When we flew over the Rocky mountains and I got to my seat and there was no window. I had a window seat

with no window. Like there was a blank wall next to me.

so I took a selfie with the blank wall and I posted it to Twitter and I was like, Hey, at United, where's my window at? Now? Imagine back in 2000  you would have never posted that? Well, first of all, we didn't have Twitter yet, so like I had no way to directly talk to United like that, but now I do and I completely expected and was right that by the time I landed on the ground  through Twitter,  United had responded to me and then they reached out to me and they, it was a small upgrade fee.

I just moved up to the, like the economy plus seat, but they refunded my upgrade fee because I had no window.

So , if you're running a big business, you should be using   live and all of these other resources to talk to people directly. If you are a small business, just know like every, like the large businesses, they want to have the relationships with customers that you actually get to have.

Ian: That's such a powerful thing to say. Such an important reminder. We tend to get overly seduced by the big numbers, the vanity statistics, but actually more and more, I think we're realizing that it's about those individual relationships. It's, you know, you can actually build a business with, with 10 or 100 people in your audience.

if you're really committed to, I hate to use the word nurturing, but you know, it's, I mean, it's, it's worth working with people. And really, interacting with those people. So that's, that's really, really important  to do that and to engage with those people

so if you're watching, if you're watching this live, you're watching the replay, if you're listening to the podcast, what do you think about that?  have you seen the power of live video? Have you seen that it has allowed you to build those relationships on a micro scale?

we tend to think a lot about the macro, but how about the micro scale building those individual relationships?

So Christine, you've used live video and you've shared some amazing points there, you spend a lot of time,  behind the camera, obviously taking photos. do you, do you still get nervous in getting in front of the camera and have you got any tips for us?

Because I, I like to ask all our guests this because a lot of people think they're the only people that get nervous or they're just struggling with tips on how to actually get more confident in front of the camera.

Christine: Well, I can say with authority, as somebody who has, I don't know, let's say I photographed at least 200 weddings and then all of my one-on-one clients of the years, so I've probably had well over a thousand people sit in front of my camera, and I can tell you that I have maybe had five people say, I like to be photographed.

Like nobody. It's, it's so rare that I just assume everybody hates it at this point in time because, and nobody really likes it. And for a long time . I always believed that it was women that struggled with this, so let me apologize. I'm going to use you as my representative of the male side of the species.

Men struggle with it too.

But women talk about it.

Ian: I think you're right there.  I hear a lot of women talking  about this, but us men generally speaking, don't like to admit it, but, you know, I, and I

Christine: but, but they'll admit it to my face when we're one-on-one. Then they'll admit it.

Ian: You see, I gotta be honest.  I think I've come to the point where I don't love the way I appear on camera...

but I've, I've come to, I've come to terms with it and I've come to terms with the way I sound. Because of course there's, the other thing is hearing your voice as well were not, you were not used to seeing yourself or hearing ourselves. And so when we then look at ourselves, I still find myself squirming a little bit.

I'm a lot better than I used to be. So I think one of the things that I would say is it takes time.  but I'm sure you're going to share some other thoughts, you know, if you've got any tips?

Christine: Okay. Well, and I was going to say the same thing. It takes time. I even, even while we've been on camera right now, I notice my little visual ticks. for example, I have a tendency to like glance to the side. It's my eyes move to the side, but I see it when I'm on camera and then I start to get worried like, Oh, did anybody else see that?

Is that bothering the people that are watching? So I always have to like remind myself, stare at the camera. But then you also don't want to feel like you're like this, like just staring at the camera. for those of you listening to the podcast, just imagine me with my eyes, like as open as large as I can make them.

So, yeah. Yeah. I still struggle with it too , and like I said, everybody does. and there are things that, that you can do to help improve it.

Ian: Well, we can maybe talk about a few of those a little bit later. I think that you said,  you see, you're kind of like your visual tics and whatever. But actually, you know, I think it's those things that make us more unique. We've got to maybe learn some of those things.  I've noticed myself.

Doing a few weird things. Some of them I think are off-putting and I probably want to eradicate them. Sometimes I'll repeat the same thing. I've noticed that  in the podcast, but I've edited that. I say that's very exciting. A lot. I think, yeah, it probably is exciting, but I don't need to say it's so many times, so I think you can learn.

I think actually watching yourself is a really good thing because you then learn to how to improve and how to become more you. But. More professional and  just to communicate better in front of the camera, I think.

Christine: Right. Exactly.

Ian: So have you experienced any disasters, whether it's like a video disaster or camera disaster?

Christine: I did entire Facebook live. That was amazing. It was so fabulous. It was like I said, exactly what I wanted to say. I had, I don't always script in advance, but I had sort of like, I take notes . Like spot on on the first run. And, my microphone wasn't plugged in all the way so nobody could hear it!

Ian: Oh, I'm glad you shared that because that's happened to me.  I don't think the, the broadcast was that amazing. Anyway, so it's probably a good thing, but it's even worse if it was the perfect...

Christine: So good. It was so good.

Ian: Yeah.  that's harsh. So what you've learned from that is always to check before...

Christine: And if your business can support it, having an assistant that will hop on when you hop on lives and have them text you if something's going wrong.  So I do a lot of broadcast without my glasses on because that way I can read. But that particular day. I have my glasses on, so I can't read the screen with my glasses on.

I need bifocals, but I don't have them, and therefore I just didn't see the comments coming in  that people were saying, we can't hear you. Or I saw one of them. I just thought it was that like a one off, like it was just that person. So I just kept going. So I did like a 10 minute Facebook live with no sound at all,

Ian: I had Steve Dotto on the show a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things he was talking about actually the advantages and having a producer so that you can just get on with delivering the content and having somebody else check all the tech and, and sorting out.

So yeah, if you've, if you've got the budget for that, then definitely check out. Getting a producer. Otherwise, it's really about testing everything, making sure everything's working. Do your test broadcast beforehand. And I love your idea about just getting somebody, like a friend who just to notify you if things aren't going well.

Christine: Yeah. And directly text me or even call  raise the red flag. It's all falling apart.

Ian: Definitely, yes.  We've all been there. I'm sure.

So you said certainly in getting  their photos taken, but I, I've noticed that a lot of my clients do really struggle with this. They don't like the way they look or the way they sound on video.

So two questions really from this. How big an issue do you think it is when it comes to live video and what can we do about it? Why? Why is there a problem? What can we do about it?

Christine: Well,  part of the problem is far more deeply rooted than the live video aspect. It goes back to a, I don't like how I look, period. There's a few things you can do about that. One, like come join us in the self love movement where you embrace the fact that you look like you look and it's okay.

and then secondly, you know, if it is a matter of physical fitness, I am not saying anybody needs to lose weight, but if it's a matter of physical fitness, if you're like, Ooh, I feel like I look overweight on camera, I want to get healthier, then. Work on it, but don't use that as an excuse to put off reaching out to your potential clients because if you have a message that the world needs, the world needs it, but they're waiting to hear from you and it just, it's a shame to say, Oh wow, I don't like how I look on camera and therefore I'm not going to do it.

Ian: Yeah.  I think you're right.  I mean, we could probably go into the whole realms of psychology here. There's probably stuff in our backgrounds here. Probably, you know, going to school is a horrible thing. You know, people may have teased or bullied you, you know, so, so there's probably a lot of that.

But the fact is, you know, we've got to focus on the now what are the things that we can do now? Some tips maybe that you could share with us that will give us more confidence so that we can. Maybe stop to like ourselves and maybe end up loving the way we look and, and being okay with that.

Christine: While we are talking about video, and I think video is so incredibly important. I also think a really helpful thing is find a local photographer and have somebody take photos of you that you actually like, so that you see yourself in a different light . Like it's a big transition for people because  we as humans only ever see ourselves direct on in a mirror.

And when somebody photographs you, they can show you all the different angles that people see you at. Second thing you can do is actually practice in front of a mirror. Like go stand with the mirror and see like, what's the angles that you like,  where should the camera be in relation to your face?

Should it be higher or lower? And for most of us, that's another thing as we position the camera too low. And it's just, it's not a flattering angle for anybody to have a camera shooting up at them. But since we only ever see ourselves in a mirror, or the only other time we see ourselves is the pictures that we took with friends.

and they posted their favorite one, and they didn't care if you look good in it or not. They just cared if they look good. Sometimes people, post photos of us, they're not very flattering. And so. We're like, Oh. That must be how I always look. Well, no, not necessarily. having a good camera and good lighting, good lighting, it's really, really important.

Ian: Yeah, definitely. some of the, the inbuilt webcams are, so, my wife's got a Dell laptop. It's a great laptop, but for some reason they thought it was a good idea putting the webcam at the bottom. So it's kind of looking at it, do you have this massive chin? You know, it's just not

They've repositioned it on the newer version cause I looked at that. That's how I ended up with the, I was down to that laptop or the surface when I bought my current surface and that was a big reason why I was like, well I, I can't buy this because the, the webcam is in just. A stupid place. And I knew that the primary reason why I was getting a computer was for doing lives.

So I needed a decent webcam. And one of the things I love about the surface is for me, but whether you use the surface, a laptop, a desktop, Mac, or PC, whatever it is, just get the computer up. Lifted up and get the camera at a higher angle. Most people look more flattering if the camera is a little bit like either right at eye level or just above eye level, almost looking down on you a little bit.

that tends to be a much more flattering angle for most people.

the other thing, of course, is to, you know, buy an external webcam such as the one I'm using at the moment. It's the Logitech C920 which I've used for ages.

Christine: A great thing about the C920 because I had that one as well, is that that has a tripod Mount, so you could put it on a tripod and just set a tripod on your desk and position it at a higher. Height. So to be able to control that height of your camera is really key to then finding the angle where you feel that you look best.

Especially women, prefer to have the camera, like I said, a little bit above eye level and angling down. It's going to flatter your neckline and  hide your chin a bit more.

Ian: That's a cool tip. I hadn't thought about that.

Christine: If you don't, if you don't like your jaw line, get the camera up higher and the angle the pointing down at you.

Ian: that's a great tip. Well, thank you for that.

Right. It's time for us second sponsor.  it's time to mention Content10X Content10X are the other sponsors of this podcast, and they are experts in content repurposing.  They provide a full end to end re-purposing service. So the great thing about this is you go live on Facebook or YouTube or wherever you want, you create this amazing content very quickly and easily. Once you've sorted out the tech and of course, your confidence as well, you press the end broadcast button and then they will take that and explode it across the interwebs in a plethora of different content, but they'll maybe turn it into a podcast for you or into a blog post or into an infographic or into a series of social media images. And this is something that I do with this live show. It's a live show. It becomes a podcast, it becomes a blog post.

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They have an awesome blog, a podcast, and now a book and great advice on all things repurposing. All you need to do is go to content10x.com and I thank Amy and the team, a Content10X for sponsoring this show.

So we were talking about using a bit of technology there , decent webcam, angling it, right. You were mentioning , putting it a little bit higher than your eyeline, so that, there's that, right? So that you can, it gets, gets a good angle. I tend to think about also looking through the camera as if  your perfect client or your best friend is behind it.

the only other thing that you've got to be aware of, I don't know if you've had this thought about this or had this issue. When I first did this and I had my webcam above my screen, I ended up looking at my screen and it looked, kept on looking like I was looking down all the time.

So I had to train myself to look up.

Christine:  Right now. Yeah. Right now, since we are live on camera, I keep telling myself in my head not to look at you, but to look at the camera instead. So I, you know, even right now, I've, one of the things I've done in the past is maybe put a, like a, a post it note.

You mentioned thinking about the client that you're talking to, if you had a photo that could represent your ideal client and maybe tape it just above the camera so that you're looking, you're looking at them and you're telling yourself, that's the person I'm talking to right now.

That's the person I want to reach. That's the person I want to speak to.

Ian: so you've said to us we need to angle,  we need to get the camera right. We need to start doing it. We need to start getting used to it.   but there are going to be some people that just find that so hard.

they go live and then they go back and watch it and they're just squirming. They just hate the way they look. And we can say things like focus on your audience, focus on the message.  those are the rational things to think about. But if people are really struggling with that , is there any hope for us to end up liking or loving ourselves on camera?

Christine: So I love that you shared about Content10X just before this. When I started podcasting  back when podcasting was a matter of like duct tape and a few wires, and you hope that you put it online like it was like 2004 maybe. Actually it was probably 2005 when I started podcasting and I went through and edited one episode one time, and I hated hearing myself speak. So after that, I practice working on being able to be like one and done and not needing to edit. And I just didn't listen to my own episodes. And I don't normally watch my own lives unless I really, really have to. so if I want and like a video clip out of alive to put someplace else, ideally I find someone who can do that for me because if that's  it's a lesson I've learned through regular photography, but we mentioned I did boudoir photography  because of the power of the internet. I thought it was really great to be able to give people the option of, I'll just put your photos online and you can go look at them and people would start looking through them, but they'd start self criticizing.

So I changed my business to where they came in and met with me to see their photos and then that way they couldn't self criticize. It's sort of the same thing. If I don't watch my own videos then I just don't know, like ignorance is bliss.

And we did touch on one other thing earlier that that clothing piece, and I think for some people, what you wear can be so important.

I have certain outfits that I consider like my power outfits.  You'll see me wearing them at conferences because they're the clothes that when I put on, I feel. Comfortable. I feel very much me. I feel good about myself in them. And when you feel good in your clothes, you will radiate that on camera.

Ian: Mm. That's really, really good. Yeah. For me, clothes, you know, this is, this is maybe not a very manly thing to say, but I think they do make a difference. You know,  I want to feel. at ease, but I think, putting a bit more effort into my clothes. My wife's been trying to getting at me for ages on this, you know, "wear a nice shirt, Ian", you know, all this kind of stuff and it does make a difference.

But the thing that really makes a difference to me is just having a haircut, having a nice haircut, and that makes a massive difference. I think I also. It's just listening to you. Then I was thinking, you know, you talked about with your photographs, meeting with your clients, was showing the photos to your clients in person, stop them from criticizing them so much.

And I wonder whether with live video,  for example, you could be in a group, in a Facebook group together, or you could have somebody who actually helps you with confidence. you could actually meet up with them and watch the videos together and learn together. Because one of the things that I like to help my clients with  I want them to watch their videos, but share, first of all, three things that they did really well.

They've got to focus on the positive first because we all end up talking about the negative, "Oh, I don't look like that and do I?"  it needs to be very constructive. But what three things can I do to improve it for next time? But I think actually meeting with them and watching it together would probably be more beneficial because then they can't get it.

They can't get away with beating themselves up too much.

Christine: And then nice thing about with the photography side of things, of doing it in person is then I also got to be a cheerleader. I got to sort of cheer them on. So if you have someone in your life that can be that support person, yes, I think it's a huge difference.  Maybe even  you have a friend that you trust their opinion and you say, here, can you watch my video?

Please tell me three great things. And I always call that the nice sandwich. Like, here's something nice. Here's what you need to improve. But let's end on a nice note. You were great. You were awesome.

Ian: So important. Well, we all need encouragement. We all need encouragement.  we don't want people just to tell us nice things without learning from them. So there's a balance. But having somebody in your life, whether it's a friend or whether you've got a coach or consultant or somebody like that, that can actually help you.

Well, lots of time, Christine. I'm afraid where there's probably loads. Is there? What's the one final thing you wanted to say?

Christine: well, as I say, it's so important that constructive criticism. Because that is very different than somebody saying, Oh, you were horrible at X,

versus, Oh, this was good. But you know, I think it would be improved if you did this...

Ian: That's important and unfortunately there are some negative people. There are some trolls out there. So you could argue if you are getting, starting to get some of those, maybe you are actually being quite successful, but it's not nice when it happens. So anyway, we're out of time.

Thank you so much, Christine. You've shared some really, really good advice with us and I've definitely learned a lot. So how can people find out more about you?

Christine: So, to, to keep it fast. As I mentioned, I was so already active and involved on the internet. When I launched my photography business, I launched my business and brought in six figures. So I grow six figures my first year in business, and everybody has always asked me, you know how, how'd you do that?

And for a long time I credited blogging and the power of storytelling, but recently I realize looking back and going through notes and everything else that it was this using the internet to connect with other local business owners. So that's now what I teach people how to do is if they have a local service business.

So all of their clients are truly local to them. I run a course that you can find at goinstalocal.com and you can also just find me online, years of blog archives and everything else at gochristine.com

Ian: That's awesome. Thank you so much, Christine. It's been great to have you on the show. So yeah, fab. And I'll see you in, in sunny San Diego very soon, which is going to be great.

So until next time, I encourage you to level up your impact, authority and profits using the power of confident live video. See you soon . Bye.

 

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About Ian

Ian Anderson GrayIan is the founder of the Confident Live® Marketing Academy and helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. Seriously Social is a blog focussed on live video and social media tools. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher and consultant.

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